Guild Wars 2

Hello, hello, fellow players!

I’ve recently started playing Guild Wars 2 again after playing it during release, and I’ve a big question to make.

What class to play?

Back when Guild Wars 2 first released, my main was a Sylvari ranger, and I recall rangers oscilating a lot between being really good and really bad as patches and nerfs rolled around, but here was the problem:

I wanted to play a tanky, melee ranger, and that didn’t work. Recall there was never any way to actually tank a dungeon as a ranger.

Now, I know, GW2 doesn’t have the holy trinity and what not but at least when I first played, there very much was. Some classes weren’t used for anything but their support abilities, anything beyond a warrior or a guardian trying to tank was unthinkable, and rangers were just DPS.

Has that changed?

If so, then my question becomes this: What class to pick?

I really liked rangers because it felt like a major jack of all trades. Long range, close range, even magic damage in HoT, the ranger has it all, plus the pet mechanic system which I really like.

However, what I’m curious about is this:

Would I be able to play a ranger as a melee character and not have it be completely outclassed by any other melee dps class? Would I be able to tank effectively, and survive effectively, or would I just have to end up being ranged instead?:

Lastly, are rangers still a really subpar class, or are they balanced now?

Onto the last part of the question; If ranger can’t do any of those things, which class would you suggest? I really like jack-of-all-trades characters, and I really like bulky tanks, so those are the ones I’d like to play.

Thanks!

Gabriel.6839:

Would I be able to play a ranger as a melee character and not have it be completely outclassed by any other melee dps class? Would I be able to tank effectively, and survive effectively, or would I just have to end up being ranged instead?:

Lastly, are rangers still a really subpar class, or are they balanced now?

Firstly if you like Ranger then stick with Ranger. Now whether can you melee effectively as a Ranger the answer is yes. Here’s a quick breakdown of Ranger melee -

Sword - Main hand weapon that offers a quick auto attack and 2 evades. Also offers a leap for increased self healing with water fields. Depending on the offhand you pair it with, can change it’s utility in groups. The offhands you can use are -
Axe - Offers a pull for trash (or a way of removing defiance if needed) and a reflect.
Dagger - Offers another evade and a projectile for cripple (can be used to proc a damage bonus).
Warhorn - Offers party swiftness, fury and might, a blast finisher and a multi hit attack.

Greatsword - 2 evades, one block and a daze/stun. Also offers a leap for increased self healing with water fields.

Certain utilities can offer invulnerability (signet of stone) or increased damage (signet of the wild, Frost spirit). Utilities like Lightning Reflexes offer another evade (coupled with greatsword allow you to evade and re-engage very quickly).

I wouldn’t say that Rangers are a subpar class, they’re kinda middle ground. The problem is they have built up a stigma for attracting players that don’t/can’t control their pets, and use skills at inappropriate times (using knockback on mobs other people are meleeing).

Pretty much any profession can ’’tank’’. Some will be better at it than other, but overall they won’t be that efficient at the content itself. You can survive way more with active defense, while keeping your DPS.

Blind, Aegis, Reflection, Protection, etc. That’s what keep you alive in this game. Not toughness, vitality, healing. But with the raids, Anet seem to want to give more role to those things. Don’t know if they will succeed.

Pretty much all profession are melee in GW2 dungeon. Even those with ranged weapons (Engineer and Elementalist), they pretty much stay in melee range for a better dps and better support between the party (sharing buff, rezzing, etc).

You should play melee as a ranger in dungeon. If you can’t, then you need to practice. But that doesn’t mean that you can just sit there and hit all the attacks. You need to dodge or block them.

Ranger as a profession in PvE is good since september 2014. It have decent dps (4th last time I checked) and some support. Unfortunately, it have the same role as Warrior, which is buff the party (Spotter and Frost Spirit), but it does it less well than Warrior. So it’s not a meta build, and almost no record run will be done with Ranger. It’s still a powerful profession for dungeon, especially in pugs.

But it still suffer from a lot of hate because it was so bad for so long and that it still have some issue. A bad warrior won’t hurt the team much, but a bad ranger will. For exemple Longbow 4 will push a foe outside of range or the pet will attract agro, etc. So bad ranger make people angry, bad warrior not as much. That’s why there is still a hate toward ranger even today. Even if it’s getting smaller and smaller over time since september 2014.

See, that’s actually the kind of answer I hoped I’d get.

I really, really liked Rangers and they were well-loved when the game came out, because they could deal out DPS like it was no one’s business.

They quickly fell out of favor thanks to a few patches and nerfs, but to know a ranger is still viable pretty much gives me all the information I need to want to play as one; I’d rather learn how to be good at the class that I enjoyed since day one, than learn another one.

Thanks for your answers, thought I’d love to hear more opinions.

Gabriel.6839:

I’d rather learn how to be good at the class that I enjoyed since day one, than learn another one.

Thanks for your answers, thought I’d love to hear more opinions.

Playing a class for any other reason than it’s what you enjoy quickly turns a game into a job.

If you want to try running some dungeons etc. to test out how your Ranger handles Gabriel nudge me in game. I can do EU or NA servers so that’s not an issue.